Tuesday Spotlight: Writing Consistency and Reedsy
Why is being a consistent writer so hard?
Illustration by Ella Elviana, check her out on instagram here!
Writing Is Hard ☹
Writing isn’t easy, no matter what others say. Some days words flow on the page like a gentle gust of wind, other days it’s like chipping away at concrete—eughh.
The “productive” days you feel like your on top of Mt. Writer Everest. But the hard days are especially heavy. You don’t know where your motivation, inspiration-your everything- went.
You’re down in a hole you didn’t dig, but it still feels like your fault.
Chin up, let’s get to the bottom of this.
The Encyclopedia of Excuses
Now wait! Don’t leave now, I know excuses sounds harsh, but it’s true. There is no excuse to give up on a habit, especially if it’s one of your goals. Long term or short term. But excuses, are a rationalization for why writing gets difficult.
Let’s find a loophole or a step up away from those hardships!
* A little disclaimer, I’m sure there are so so many other hardships people go through when trying to reach their motivation to write, but these are the big one’s I could think of. If you have any more, please feel free to put it in the comments!
Life’s Gotten in The Way (Time Management)
This has happened to me too many times to count—it’s uncomfortably relatable. Sometimes, it happens. You get swept up in your commitments and responsibilities. You might have a full-time job, maybe your a full-time student, or working towards other goals.
That’s ok. Hi, we’re human, we’re going to get overwhelmed sometimes. If you miss one day, or even two (woah!), you’re fine. Blips in the timeline of a habit mean nothing, until it becomes chronic. If you’re onto four, five days without writing it’s time to reevaluate.
How and why did writing fall off the priority list? Can it get dropkicked back to the top?
If not, it’s understandable. Writing doesn’t have to be your top priority, but it still is a priority. Carve out thirty minutes for it if you can’t get a full hour—even five will do. As long as you’re writing, getting those creative juices flowing, you’re doing great! You’re making progress.
Executive Dysfunction & Procrastination
This is for my folks who struggle with ADHD, with distractions, and procrastination. I know there’s a lot of us out their who do. You get on yourself for forgetting, for watching Youtube when you could be writing, for only getting a hundred words down. I see you! I have something for you to try :)
When starting is half the battle, try out the Pomodoro Timer! It’s often used for studying to keep a good balance of breaks and work time, but the same can be directed towards writing. It’s what I do to stay on track with this newsletter actually! It’s pretty fool-proof for the person who has trouble with staying on track.
The Pomodoro technique, depending on the one you use, has a 25-5 work to break ratio of time. It works to keep a management of your work period-however long you want that to be- and breaks to keep your attention from becoming strained.
I have no clue what to write about?
This one, this one’s simple. I’ll give you the words of my senior year English teacher: “ Just write! Write the words “I don’t know what to write” and go from there”. Your first draft can be sloppy, battered, and half-dead—it’s not meant to be your polished published piece.
Write for ideas, for fun, for practice! It doesn’t always have to have a purpose. I for one, love writing prompts from tumblr, instagram, and…Reedsy! (Great transition I know)
Reedsy: A Writer’s Best Friend
Reedsy is an author’s dream resource. Funded by the UN, Reedsy gives any and all aspiring writers and authors access to quality editors, publishers, and book cover artists helping bring 15,000 books to market every year.
A few of their resources are the Reedsy Marketplace, Reedsy Lvie, and Reedsy Prompts.
Reedsy Marketplace is where you can find your team for that book you’ve always wanted to write! Full of talented ghostwriters, designers, editors and more.
Reedsy Live is full of professional publishing advice webinars. They go over anything between landing your first book deal to a pitching contest called Pitchwars (my personal favorite). And that’s not even the best part, it’s all free.
Reedsy Prompts is a place for you to share your creative writing skills with your peers in weekly short story contests. It’s a lot of fun and gives great inspiration for new story ideas! I often use it to practice my fantasy writing skills.
There’s also: Reedsy Blog, Reedsy Learning (Which will be another Sunday Spotlight), and more!
Reedsy has helped me stay active with writing, and I recommend it to anyone struggling, or who just wants some spontaneity in their writing. Check it out!
The Weekly Newsletter Corner
I’m adding this little bit of recognition for the amazing and hard working people I have met on Substack and outside of it these last few months. Thank you all for your constructive feedback, the support, and witty banter :)
- is a lovely horror and psychology themed newsletter I’ve had the honor of reading this past month. Izel posts weekly about murder mysteries and productivity!
- by Khadejah is a fantastic newsletter to explore the writing profession and as a hobby! I’ve used a lot of her advice to polish my writing and I really appreciate her banter on Notes!
- by Alexis Damien is a fun newsletter focused on everything creative with a dash of slice-of-life too. I’ve really enjoyed her positivity and enthusiasm on notes :)
Thanks for Reading
I'm so sorry to my newsletter readers for clogging your email a bit today. I’m excited to get back at it with writing about the things I enjoy. I hope this opened you to some new authors and new resources.
See you next Sunday with a look into Reedsy Learning!
Until next teatime,
Kate
My go to excuse is definitely "life got in the way", more specific: "after a long day at work my brain is just too tired to do any more thinking". Because of that since last week I've started waking up early and just doing my writing in the morning. It's such a cool way to start the day.
Hey Kate, this was an awesome read! I love how you talked about procrastination! That’s the main reason why I would skip a few days of my writing habit. And that procrastination would force me to make up excuses as to why I procrastinated lol. I also love how you brought up the pomodoro method! I used it in college a lot to study for exams and it worked wonders on me! I sort of do that with my writing now! Thank you so much the shoutout as well! I love our banter on Substack! Keep up the awesome work! 💪❤️